Hundreds of thousands of Muslim names missing from voter list in BJP-ruled Karnataka
Ahead of assembly elections, the names of hundreds of thousands of Muslim voters from Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Karnataka state were found to be missing from the latest electoral roll released by the Election Commission.
Activist Syed Khalid said he flagged the missing names when comparing the number of last year’s voters to the number of voters in the new list.
“We found that voters numbering approximately 2 to 4 thousand are missing from the 2023 rolls in every constituency,” he said.
Karnataka state has witnessed other incidents where Muslims were stripped of their right to vote en masse. Recently, names of 9,159 Muslim voters in a Muslim-majority constituency in Bengaluru city were removed from the voters’ list. This removal was done based on a complaint filed by a private agency linked to the Hindu supremacist BJP government.
The move is the latest in the BJP’s ongoing attempt to strip Muslims throughout India of their rights to vote and maintain citizenship.
Hindu extremists call to boycott halal meat during festive season in Karnataka
Hindu supremacist groups have begun calls to boycott halal meat during a festive season in Karnataka state, a move that will directly target thousands of Muslim vendors, who make up the majority of butchery owners.
The call for the boycott comes ahead of two festivals where a central point is cooking and eating meat, which has been a source of business for Muslims.
Hindu supremacists have submitted a memorandum to the district magistrate of Bengaluru city, demanding that the consumption of meat be banned during the festivals.
Hindu supremacists have also carried out a march and distributed handbills in Bengaluru demanding a boycott and implicitly threatening Muslims who depend on selling meat for their livelinhood.
Hindu supremacists, militants hold month-long footmarch ahead of elections
A month-long footmarch held by the Hindu supremacist group Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti across Chhattisgarh state ended on Sunday, culminating in a demand to turn India from a secular democracy into a “Hindu Rashtra,” or a Hindu nation.
The march, which involved around 200 Hindu religious leaders, was supported by the BJP and the violent Hindu militant groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It was seen as a move to polarize Hindu voters and fuel anti-minority hatred in the state ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
One Hindu extremist leader, Swami Avdheshanand Giri, addressed a crowd, saying, “The day Hindus become hardcore, the doors of peace and reconciliation will open.”
Acharya Rakesh, deputy president of the Chhattisgarh Sant Samiti, confirmed that the Hindu extremist leaders had visited villages throughout the state, making fear-mongering claims that Hindus were in danger of being subjected to forced conversion.
“[The religious leaders] spread the message of Hindu pride. They talked about the importance of Hindu Rashtra and said we all are Hindus first, and it’s above all castes. We must unite to fight against conversion,” said Rakesh.
The dangerous and hateful rhetoric targets Muslims and Christians and scapegoats them as the reason for problems faced by Hindus of all castes, paving the way for the BJP to tighten its control over an increasingly radicalized India through the elections.
